Much poultry is sold in the form of deskinned poultry parts. In removing the skin during processing, it is important to avoid damaging the meat, particularly since with the skin removed, the meat is readily visible and therefore should be maintained in an undamaged condition. Automatic equipment has been developed to remove skin from poultry parts to replace the traditional method of manual removal of the skin. Known prior devices are less than completely effective for removing the skin without damaging the meat, for reliably engaging the skin to remove the skin without fail, and for reclaiming the skin from the removal equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,721 of Hill is such a device and relates to a poultry skinning machine for removing the skin from poultry parts. Hill discloses a pair of helical rollers having inter-engaging helical teeth that laterally transport the poultry part while removing the skin from the part. Hill teaches that an operator would place the poultry part onto the pair of rollers whereby the skin is removed from the meat as the poultry part is supported and carried along in a longitudinal direction by the helical rollers. This type of device is generally developed from earlier devices for separating the gut and stomach from poultry gizzards utilizing peeling rollers. A disadvantage of this arrangement in connection with larger poultry pieces, such as thighs, drumsticks, breasts, etc., is that the meat on these larger pieces is much less firm than the rather tough gizzard, and can easily be drawn into and damaged by the rollers.
European Patent Application No. EP 0 244 887 B1 relates to a breast skinner in which a poultry carcass is suspended by the legs and dragged across two pairs of pinch rollers in a manner to cause the breast portion to traverse the two pairs of rollers perpendicular to the elongation of the rollers. Two different size pairs of rollers are used so that the breast skin is more reliably grasped and removed for different size carcasses. While this system generally works well for breast portions still attached to the poultry carcass, it is not particularly well-suited to removing the skin from other poultry parts already detached from the remainder of the carcass, such as detached legs and thighs.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need yet remains for an apparatus for removing the skin from animal parts which is reliable in operation, is effective without damaging the meat of the poultry part, is well-suited for use with detached parts, and which is safe in use. It is to the provision of such an apparatus that the present invention is primarily directed.